Iran blocks Facebook as presidential election heats up

TEHRAN (Reuters) --
A moderate challenger to hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has
condemned the authorities for blocking access to the Facebook social
networking site ahead of the June 12 presidential election.

Former
parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi said websites should be tolerated
at "such a sensitive political period."

Iran, whose authorities employ a variety of methods to impose tough Internet
censorship, had seen
Facebook unblocked in February.

Since then, an increasing number of Iranians inside the country have turned on
to Facebook, to keep in touch or exchange information.

There is a whiff of irony in the fact that
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has several fan pages on Facebook. On one, he has
about 7,000 fans from several Muslim countries. (Ahmadinejad detractors have
meanwhile created a Facebook page that has attracted 40,000 fans and boasts, "I
bet I can find 1,000,000 people who dislike Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.") But he had
not been campaigning there in the narrow sense of the word.

Both reformist candidates, Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi, have accused
the Iranian state broadcaster of biased election coverage that favors
Ahmadinejad.

Musavi supporters have used Facebook extensively -- and effectively, according
to ILNA -- to promote him and his ideas. (Musavi is said to have his own
Twitter account.)

Karrubi backers have put Facebook to use, too, to spread their candidate's
views, albeit to a lesser degree.

On its surface, then, the blocking of Facebook looks like a government-inspired
move to limit campaign-boosting activities among Ahmadinejad's challengers,
since the incumbent has crucial support within effective dissemination tools
like the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the state broadcaster.

It would be a particularly egregious move if you're among those who believe that
voter apathy is key to an Ahmadinejad victory.